States submitting more mental health records to background check system

In the wake of mass-shootings such as those in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., state governments since 2011 have tripled the number of mental health records submitted to the FBI’s gun-purchase background checks system, according to a new report out Thursday.

The inflow of records into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System _ NICS _ contributed to a 65 percent hike since 2011 in firearms dealer denials of gun purchases to persons adjudicated mentally ill, the report by Everytown for Gun Safety concludes.

“A background check system is only as good as the records it contains _ and my personal experience is proof of this fact,’’ said Colin Goddard, an Everytown advocate who survived four bullet wounds inflicted by mass-shooter
Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech in 2007.

Cho had been treated for mental illness before going on a shooting spree in which he killed 32.

“There’s wide agreement among 90 percent of Americans that we need to keep guns out of the hands of people suffering from severe mental illness, which is why this jump in records submission is a bipartisan success _ driven by laws passed by Democratic and Republican legislatures and signed by governors of both parties,’’ Goddard said.

NICS began inputting records when it went online in 1998. Gun-purchase disqualifications include those adjudicated mentally ill, convicted of a felony, or under a court-imposed protective order. Drug addicts and persons in the U.S. without legal status also are barred from buying guns.

Among the states getting high marks in the report are California, Texas and New York.

California more than doubled the number of mental health records it submitted to NICS, from 279,589 on Oct. 31, 2011 to 563,458 on Nov. 30, 2013.

Texas went from 174,802 mental health records in NICS on Oct. 31, 2011 to 229,692 on Nov. 30, 2013, a 31 percent increase.

New York went from 160,092 mental health records in NICS on Oct. 31, 2011 to 218,487 on Nov. 30, 2013, a 36 percent increase.

Connecticut recorded a 43 percent increase in mental health records submitted to NICS between Oct. 31, 2011 and Nov. 30, 2013, but its baseline was significantly lower than other states. Connecticut went from 11,141 records in 2011 to 15,898 in 2013.

Overall, the number of gun-purchase denials based on NICS mental health records went from 1,776 in 2011 to 2,932 in 2013, a 65 percent increase.

The report noted that 12 states _ Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming _ have submitted less than 100 records each to NICS.

The quantity of mental health records in NICS has long been a point of controversy, with mental-health advocates worried about privacy intrusion and the deterrent to seeking mental health care posed by the prospect of losing gun rights. In January 2013 _ a month after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. _ President Obama proposed adjustments to mental health privacy regulations so that states would submit more records.

After the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, Congress approved the NICS Improvement Amendments Act, which set up a system of financial incentives and grants to help states submit records. This year’s federal budget includes $58.5 million for states to upgrade their systems of submitting records. That’s $40 million more than the previous year.

The National Rifle Association, which supported creation of the NICS system but led the charge last year against expanding it to include private transactions at gun shows and elsewhere, was critical of the report’s findings.

“When roughly a third of the states are lagging in record submissions and a fifth of the states submit a less-than-paltry number of records, that is a gaping hole,’’ said NRA public affairs director Andrew Arulanandam.